YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

TENANCY

Your tenancy with Zebra Housing Association is a student tenancy, and is usually valid for one year. It may be renewed, where proof of continued full-time study is provided, and all conditions of the previous tenancy have been adhered to.

One month’s rent in advance is required at the start of the tenancy, and will be returned to you two weeks after your tenancy ends subject to the accommodation being left in a clean and tidy condition and all rent having been paid.

The tenancy agreement outlines the specific details of your tenancy. Your attention is drawn to the fact that four weeks notice in writing must be given to the office before the date you wish to terminate your tenancy.

The tenancy can only be ended by ZHA at the end of the fixed period, or if one of the conditions of tenancy is broken. Only a court can make an order for possession of the property.

REPAIRS

A “right to repair scheme” exists to allow housing association tenants to get certain repairs completed quickly and easily when their landlord fails to do so. The scheme has set time limits for certain types of repair, which associations must stick to. If the contractors the housing association uses don’t do the work in that time, you can ask them to hire someone else. If the repairs still aren’t done, you can claim compensation.

The scheme only covers certain repairs, known as ‘qualifying repairs’, which cost less than £250 to carry out.

If you believe we have failed to carry out a repair and you want to use the “right to repair” scheme let us know, and we will give you all the information you need. We will also try to resolve the matter to your satisfaction without the need for you to have to take these steps.

PRIVACY

We collect information from you, such as details you pass on to us when you make an application for housing, sign-up for your tenancy, complete your direct debit mandate, book a repair, join one of our forums or services or participate in our social programme.

The personal information we collect from you is used to provide annonymised information, to our board and regulator and for administration purposes. We also use this information to further our charitable aims, including campaigning and fundraising activities.

We may need to share your information with our service providers, associated organisations and agents for these purposes. We do not disclose personal information for direct marketing purposes. We may need to disclose your information if required to do so by law.end_of_the_skype_highlighting

We only collect the financial information that you knowingly supply when making a payment or setting up a mandate. This information is stored securely and never passed to any other individual or organisation.

Zebra works strenuously to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, which sets rules for processing personal information and applies to paper records, as well as those held on computers. In particular we ensure that information is:

• fairly and lawfully processed;

• processed for limited purposes, and not for any manner incompatible with those purposes;

• adequate, relevant and not excessive;

• accurate;

• not kept for longer than is necessary;

• processed in line with the data subject’s rights;

• secure;

• not transferred to countries without adequate data protection.

We retain some items of information for longer than others and some information about residents (name, date of birth, gender, and nationality) is to be kept indefinitely.

Our residents have the right to access personal data relating to them which is held by Zebra. This applies to data held electronically, and also manual records that are in a relevant filing system. If you want to exercise this right you should make the request in writing to our Financial Controller, who is our Data Protection Officer. Zebra will only release information upon receipt of a formal written request, along with proof of identity. The requested information will be provided within 10 days of receipt of the completed form, unless there is sufficient reason for delay.